Wet Saturday, Split Mother's Day

Feel like getting all whiny and difficult about our rainy Saturday? Consider this: On this day in 1945 your grandparents dealt with 7" of snow anddddd they had to walk both ways uphill to purchase a shovel made entirely out of wood. So there.

Today: One moderate band of rain is currently exiting western and southern Maine on its way northeastward into central Maine and the Midcoast. This area of rain has produced some pretty heavy downpours and a few embedded rumbles of thunder. Once it clears Downeast by noon there will be a statewide lull of mostly cloudy skies, some coastal drizzle, but not much in the way of organized rainfall. Not to say it's going to be pleasant outside, but there does look to be a mid-day break due to the position of the warm front to our north and the cold front still racing eastward. By late this afternoon into the early evening (6-8 PM) the cold front will arrive with a line of showers and thunderstorms. The amount of available moisture in the atmosphere right now is quite high so I expect some very healthy downpours to accompany this line. High temperatures will end up in the mid to upper 60s with a bit of a sticky feeling in the air.

Tonight: Showers and embedded thunderstorms continue through the first half of the evening but as the cold front pushes eastward the activity will dwindle by the early morning. At that point look for coastal drizzle and dense fog to dominate.

Mother's Day: This is a tough forecast because it's not ALL bad, but it's not great either. With the cold front offshore by Sunday morning I expect cloudy skies and coastal fog to start the day BUT it will be mainly dry. Late morning through mid-day should prove to be the best part of Sunday with some breaks in the cloud cover and dry conditions. HOWEVER, a secondary cold front will slash through by the afternoon. This front doesn't have much in the way of moisture but it appears still capable of touching off some showers by 1-2 PM. The best chance of showers will be in the mountains and foothills with the lowest chance of showers along the immediate coastline due to a drying west wind. Temperatures will push into the upper 60s in many spots and even low 70s where there is more sunshine.

A ridge of high pressure will build in for Monday and Tuesday providing mostly sunny skies (with the exception of some mountain clouds). The downside is that this ridge will drag down some very cool air from Canada. High temperatures on Monday will struggle to get out of the 50s and Tuesday will find us in the low 60s at best.

Interesting tidbit: The record for the latest in the year Portland hit 70 F for the first time is May 24th (let that one sink in). As it stands we have yet to achieve 70 F in this fine city (we got stuck at 69 F several times) and looking at the next 7 days I don't see it happening. That would put us at about May 17th. This is kind of like going into the Guinness World Book of Records for the longest finger nails. Sure you broke a record, but no one is happy about what it took to get there.

Facebook: I have inaccurately assumed I am worthy of a "fan page" on Facebook so I invite you to "like" it. More importantly we need to get me about another 1,000 likes so I can overtake Lopresti at Channel 13....he's currently smoking me and I'm not going to stand for it.